[Ben]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/apple/news/2008/04/09/Latest-Firmware-Reveals-3G-iPhone-Chipset/p1


There's nothing like trawling through source code to break a man's spirit, unless you stumble upon the gem of all gems...

iPhone unlocking guru Zibri (who already freed all our handsets with ZiPhone) has today bestowed another gift upon us: the name of the 3G iPhone's chipset.

Located deep in the code of the latest 2.0 firmware beta, is a crucial reference to "SGOLD3", the follow up to Infinion's S-GOLD2 chip which powers the current iPhone. Now 'S-GOLD3H', to use its full name (or its 'PMB8878' reference code), has been known about for some time, but it was unclear whether Apple would be picking up the chip again. It seems it has...

In which case the follow exciting possibilities arise: PMB8878 has 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, DVB-H mobile TV, up to five megapixel camera support, Mpeg4/H.263 hardware acceleration, "video telephony, streaming, recording and playback" and even 2x MMC/SD card interfaces. Just as importantly, simultaneous voice and data access is now possible with DTM class 11 capability - up from DTM class 9 where surfing the web/checking email cut off phone capabilities - while the polyphonic ringer improves from 40 to 64 voices at up to 48KHz.

More troublesome, as I'm sure you'll have noticed by now, there is no mention of GPS and it could prove that when combined with HSDPA it is simply too much of a battery drain. It is also worth noting that even if this is the chip Apple will likely choose not to implement all the features - most notably DVB-H and memory card support are likely to get the chop. After all, in the S-Gold2/PMB8876 Apple chose to turn off the FM radio support and MMC/SD card compatibility while Bluetooth was somewhat neutered.

In related news, Apple has also delivered v3 of its iPhone/iPod touch SDK which promises bug fixes and "support for the latest iPhone OS". We're getting close people...
Very exciting, the chip has some great possibilities. I particularly like the feature of not blocking phonecalls while using (what I assume is) HSDPA. Classy.

Not that HSDPA is of any use whatsoever on O2 by the sound of it (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/o2_speed_limits/).

So now we're just waiting on the announcement, which might not be until the summer and WWDC, to see exactly what features Apple has decided to use.

[chaslam]

Sounds interesting.

Its interesting you mentioned the o2 coverage there Ben. The couple of days ago I had a customer come in who brought a E90 on o2 (they initially wanted it on vodafone, but they got lured into o2) and the primary reason they got it was for high speed internet. He got it home, locked onto 3G, and loaded up the BBC website. Just under a minute later (53 seconds to be exact) it had finished loading. Thinking this was very slow, he went onto the o2 website of where it showed FULL HSDPA (Yes FULL) across the whole of the south east of england. That includes the whole of Brighton, Hove, Shorham and worthing. Now, if anyone is familar with the south coast, apparently o2s HSDPA coverage even covered the WHOLE of the south downs and Devils Dyke.
Now vodafone have by far the best HSDPA coverage in the south, and in some places in the downs there isnt even 2G coverage let alone 3G or HSDPA, yet o2 are claiming to have 100% of the south coast covered.

We then decided to put this theory to the test and walked around the building until we got a 3.5G logo on the customers E90. We went to the back door and jumped up and down, and we got the logo for about 5 seconds and then it disappeared. Its like o2 just got a blue marker and coloured in the whole of the south coast.

I then told him that o2 limit their 3G network to 128kbp/s anyway, and he was furious. He said hes tried to call o2 and cancel within the 14 days and they have refused, despite their website claiming a 14 day return policy on all of their handsets, so he wasnt going to go into store and demand it to be cancelled. After all, he was mis-sold the contract being promised high speed internet, which he obviously isnt getting.

Now I do like the iphone, despite it being severely overpriced and under functioning compared to alot of other phones on the market, but I really think o2 have ruined everything with it. I used to be with o2 however recently ive heard of people having nothing but trouble with them. It seems they have just concentrated on their iphone to much, and completely neglected the rest of their network. I mean the whole 3G rollout has completely halted so they can concentrate on EDGE, let alone HSDPA coverage. I bet if you walked into a o2 store they wouldn't even know what it meant! It seems to me their strategy is to limit the speed of 3G network to make their EDGE network appear alot faster. I mean its like Ferrari wanting to sell more Fiat cars, so their limit the speed of the Ferrari engine so the Fiat Puntos go faster, its silly!

[Hands0n]

O2 are not making any further commitment to EDGE according to posters on the O2 iPhone forum who are fairly miffed at being stuck with 2G/GPRS on their iPhones. I live in an EDGE area and work in central London which has a fair degree of EDGE too, so I have got it fairly well covered.

Is this good news for O2's 3G/HSDPA? Their fake coverage map proclaiming 7.2Mbps could well land them in front of one of the governing bodies (ASA perhaps?) for misleading the public. It would only take a very few complaints to have them being reprimanded. But they have got to get it right, despite their apparent denigration of the paying customer's audacity to want decent mobile data speeds. They are very late to market with 3G/HSDPA and cannot afford to be complacent for much longer. 3, Vodafone and T-Mobile are all light years ahead of them.

Even Orange [pffft] have a good lead on O2 in a market where being last is not the best idea in town.